Dan and Jeff have been on their canoeing adventure for about
3 weeks now. Section 2 of the trail took them from Long
Lake to the Saranac
River in upstate New York. They paddled through a unique Silver
Maple swamp and century-old hand-operated locks.

Dan in front of the hand operated lock

In Section 4, Dan and Jeff paddle down the Saranac River.
It features old dams and some spots of rapids. To avoid the rapids, Dan and Jeff
mostly portage around them to lessen the risk of damage to the hull of the boat
and to themselves. The Saranac River empties into Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh, New
York. When they paddled into the lake on May 14th,
the lake was pristine, smooth and flat. The duo took the advantage
of sleeping in a bed and getting a hot shower. The next morning, they awoke to
the sound of crashing waves. Both realized it was not a good day to cross Lake Champlain. For those of you who know nothing about
the Lake, it has 435 square miles of surface
water and is 12 miles across at its widest point. The winds tend to follow the length of the lake across
the surface of the lake and make the water get choppier as it gets toward
Plattsburgh and the islands. So, thus, paddling a canoe across rough water was not
an option. So they decided to take a quick respite and come back to Middlebury
for a couple of days to wait for the current weather pattern and storms to
pass.
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Two days later the duo returned to Plattsburgh. The lake was still too rough, so they took the ferry across the lake to Grand Isle and made the
paddle from there into the Missisquoi
River to start section 6. This particular river
takes them through the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and up into Canada. Then
back down into Vermont through Lake Memphremagog.
Next they paddled up the Clyde River toward Lake
Salem and onward to Island Pond using
the Nulhegan River. The river eventually empties
into the Connecticut River on the border of Vermont
and New Hampshire. They are currently in Section 7. This part of the trail takes them through the North Woods of New Hampshire up the Ammonoosuc and Androscoggin rivers into Umbagog Lake and then into Maine. This stretch is a lot less populated and offers dense woodlands. To follow their daily progress by GPS click on the link below:http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0koxd6yft4A1f3CFm0OgpuZXpNptsCCG3